The 3 best Game of Thrones episodes (and the 2 worst) according to IMDb

2. "Battle of the Bastards" (Season 6 Episode 9) 

The penultimate episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones is rightfully one of its three top-rated episodes on IMDb. Not only did it bring about an absolutely satisfying, well-deserved demise for Ramsay Bolton, but also gave us one of the most hard-hitting, exhilarating battle scenes in the entire show.

The moment where Jon Snow stands alone, his sword Longclaw unsheathed, ready to take on waves of Bolton’s soldiers, lives rent-free in every fan’s mind to this day. Personally, my favorite scene in the episode is the arrival of the Knights of the Vale to the battle. Their roaring cavalry barging through the Bolton forces is a welcome site as it ensures Jon and the others live to fight another day.

Ramsay Bolton proves no match for Jon in one-on-one combat when the time comes. But instead of giving him an honorable death in battle, Jon leaves him alive for Sansa Stark to decide how he dies. She should, after all, get to have the final say after what Ramsay put her through during their brief arranged marriage. Proving that she is no longer the naive girl she once was, Sansa feeds him to his hounds whom he starved for seven days beforehand.

The smirk on Sansa’s face as Ramsay gets devoured marks a powerful moment of development for the future Queen in the North. From Cersei’s lessons to Littlefinger’s manipulations and everything in between, she had indeed come a long way from the lovesick child hoping to marry a prince. She was a slow learner, but she learned.